Wamda

Palestine

Why this high-fashion startup is prioritizing Palestine

ElMuda's founders Ruba Abdulhadi (left) and Badea Jaber. High fashion is big business in the Middle East. In fact, the Arab region is one...

elmuda palestine Fashion

Global

GoNabit’s cofounders reunite to embark on a new journey

Having been a part of Dan Stuart and Sohrab Jahanbani’s team back when they cofounded GoNabit, the first online group buying website...

livingsocial gonabit Q&A

Lebanon

Art meets architecture at design startup UV Lab

Khan Bar Restaurant: UV Lab's first comprehensive project This article is part of a partnership with Dreammatcher and AltCity. UV...

Maghreb

How Droidcon and Google Developers Group are pushing Tunisia's economic development

A few weeks ago, 1,000 geeks gathered for the fourth Tunisian edition of Droidcon, the yearly conference dedicated to Android developers -...

Taher Mestiri Droidcon google developers group

U.A.E

Dubai’s The Luxury Closet secures $2.2m in VC funds

Dubai’s The Luxury Closet, an online platform buys and sells pre-owned luxury goods on consignment, has secured $2.2 million USD of its S...

Kunal Kapoor The Luxury Closet investement

Regional

Womena, solving the gender imbalance of the region’s angel investors

“We do not want a mentality of men versus women, but rather a comprehensive mentality for knowledge sharing between the two genders i...

Womena MENA Angel Investment

Lebanon

5 things I learned from making a video game in 30 hours

Sten Selander of Media Evolution (Sweden) briefs Arabic Game Jam participants As a kid, I had two main hobbies: drawing and playing video...

video games arabic game jam MENA Games

Regional

Hatcher announces new seed and Series A funding for MENA startups

Hatcher, the Singapore-based ‘B2B venture builder’ connecting startups in emerging markets with investors, is looking to “double down,” as ...

hatcher fund hatcher beirut

Regional

Inspiration, community-building and unicorns at #STEP2015

The STEP Conference, in its fourth year, is quickly becoming one of the most anticipated events in the Arab region when it comes...

STEP2015 Step Conference STEP

U.A.E

Payment solution, online marketplace, and logistics startup top TechCrunch Dubai

On the eve of the Step Conference, (the Middle East’s largest event featuring technology, design, and gaming trends), Innovation360’s acc...

Step Conference Laundry Box Bit Oasis

Regional

New fund to invest $10M in idea-stage startups

In order to bridge the funding gap between the early stages of a startup, a new fund lead by Prince Kojo Onioni Zalani from Nigeria is...

fund

Jordan

liwwa announces seed round led by DASH Ventures, hints at new product launch

liwwa, the Amman-based peer-to-peer Sharia-compliant lending site, has closed a seed round led by DASH Ventures, with participation from...

crowd economy liwwa DASH Ventures

Regional

Why social entrepreneurship is critical for MENA

Activists in the Middle East and North Africa who identify challenges in their communities must step up and create social enterprises that...

MENA Social Entrepreneurship

Lebanon

How a Lebanese ecommerce pioneer carved his niche

The hype surrounding entrepreneurs and tech companies has breathed new life into the myth that startups are staffed by college dropouts in...

Karim Saikali lebanon E-commerce

Regional

Synthesis and community: how MENA Game participants plan to boost the gaming industry

The MENA region is one of the fastest growing gaming markets in the world - for game developers - and is expected to reach $3.2 billion in...

gaming industry Play 3arabi MENA

Egypt

Jumia Egypt has two new CEOs, here's what one has to say

Egypt is a major market for Jumia, Rocket Internet’s market place in Africa and they’re betting big on it. In December, they hired not jus...

Q&A Jumia

Global

Fadi Bishara on what will attract the VC from Silicon Valley [Wamda TV]

Catching up with Fadi Bishara at the recent ArabNet conference in Beirut Wamda got a chance to chat with him about his thoughts on the VC...

Fadi Bishara blackbox silicon valley

Regional

Facebook launches Blueprint for startups; and main announcements from #F8

In one of its biggest conferences so far, Facebook revealed this week a slew of services, products, and features tailored to almost all...

F8 blueprint Facebook

U.A.E

Can small payments lead to big business?

This article is a crosspost with the Payfort blog. There was a time when the motto of the internet was “information wants to be free." But ...

online transactions e-payments micropayments

U.A.E

From boardroom to baby room: how Mona Ataya is building the UAE's one-stop shop for mothers

Mona Ataya is proving to be one of the UAE’s most prominent female entrepreneurs. The cofounder of Bayt.com, arguably the most successful o...

Mumzworld

Maghreb

Why crowdfunding isn't easy in North Africa

Following the success of Kickstarter.com and IndieGoGo.com, crowdfunding platforms around the world have taken off. There is big...

Smala & Co Jumpstart Africa zoomaal

Saudi Arabia

Saudi’s Rwaq team hope to create community of educators

This article has been crossposted from Firnas.org We are so close to an awakening in the Arab world. In the past three years there has been...

Maharah Rwaq ksa

Kuwait

Kuwait’s fund Arzan VC announces third investment of the year

Last time we checked with Arzan Venture Capital, Kuwait’s newest Series A fund, Managing Partner Hassan Zainal told Wamda that Arzan...

Arzan VC investement kuwait

Regional

Souq.com opens API to the public to spur MENA ecommerce

Souq.com announced Friday that it will be making its API (application program interface) available to the public, allowing third party...

api Souq.com ShopGo

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